Hi!
At 23:12 26-01-1999 -0800, you wrote:
>Alex Future Bokov wrote:
>
>> Now at 25 I'm coming to grips with the fact that I've blown eight
>> years in undergrad, with nothing to show for it but a mediocre GPA and a
>> long string of failures wherever hands-on labwork was involved. I'm not
>> giving up on my goal, but perhaps it's time to change my approach.
>>
>> Or, are there any alternative paths
>> to serious research that don't depend heavily on school transcripts and
>> recommendations from professors? If you were me, what would you do?
>
>Actually, you and I have quite a bit in common. However, I've got about a 5
>year head start on you - being that I'm 30.
Actually, both of you and I have quite a bit in common. However, I'm 21 and I have a good GPA. Still, the problem of how to pursue a career in biogerontology is common to both -- I don't know about Paul -- of us. My advice is that you study aging and become good at it. No-one is going to teach you how to end human aging; you'll have to try and figure it out yourself. There is much work that can be done without necessarily working in a lab. Einstein began by having a mediocre job -- with patents if I'm not mistaken -- but having enough free time to dedicate to his personal theoretical research. Remember: "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." Alternatively, as other people have mentioned, you can try to make a lot of money and then pay someone to do the research for you.
Personally, I graduate in June and I'm going the "transcripts and recommendation letters" path. I don't think I can gather enough funds to start my own company but I'll contact a couple of companies working in biogerontology. Needless to say that if any of you have any good ideas, give a signal.
Goodbye and good luck.
-- "Life's too short to cry, long enough to try." -- Kai Hansen